Étienne Bazeries, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Étienne Bazeries

French cryptogrpaher

Date of Birth: 21-Aug-1846

Place of Birth: Port-Vendres, Languedoc-Roussillon, France

Date of Death: 07-Nov-1931

Profession: military personnel, mathematician, cryptographer

Nationality: France

Zodiac Sign: Leo


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About Étienne Bazeries

  • Étienne Bazeries (21 August 1846 Port Vendres – 7 November 1931 Noyon) was a French military cryptanalyst active between 1890 and the First World War.
  • He is best known for developing the "Bazeries Cylinder", an improved version of Thomas Jefferson's cipher cylinder.
  • It was later refined into the US Army M-94 cipher device.
  • Historian David Kahn describes him as "the great pragmatist of cryptology.
  • His theoretical contributions are negligible, but he was one of the greatest natural cryptanalysts the science has seen." (Kahn 1996, p244) Bazeries was born in Port-Vendres, France, the son of a mounted policeman.
  • In 1863 he enlisted in the army, and fought in the Franco-Prussian War, where he was taken prisoner, although he later managed to escape disguised as a bricklayer.
  • In 1874 he was promoted to lieutenant, and sent to Algeria in 1875.
  • He returned to France the following year and married Marie-Louise-Elodie Berthon, with whom he would father three daughters: Césarine, Fernande and Paule. He apparently became interested in cryptography through solving cryptograms in newspapers' personal columns, and soon applied his cryptanalytic skills in a military context when, in 1890, he solved messages enciphered with the official French military transposition system, causing the War Ministry to change to a new scheme.
  • In an effort to prompt reform within the government and enhance national security, Bazeries further exposed weaknesses in French cipher systems.
  • In 1891, news of his talent had spread, and he began work for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Bureau du Chiffre.
  • Bazeries continued his cryptanalytic work there even after he retired from the Army in 1899, assisting in solving German military ciphers during World War I.
  • However, many of Bazeries recommendations to the government for improvements in official cipher systems met severe bureaucracy and rebuffs, which became a constant source of frustration for him in an otherwise illustrious career.
  • He retired in 1924, aged 78. In the 1890s he broke a famous nomenclator system called the "Great Cipher", created by the Rossignols in the 17th century.
  • One of the messages referred to the famous Man in the Iron Mask and provided a possible solution to the mystery.
  • His influential 1901 text Les Chiffres secrets dévoilés ("Secret ciphers unveiled") is considered a landmark in cryptographic literature.

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